BETA: Channels DVR Server for Raspberry Pi 4 (USB BOOT IMAGE)

Aw man that's super frustrating because I bought the exact one that was recommended on the getchannels[dot]com shopping list guide.

Can you capture the HDMI screen the same way with the USB attached?

It only records 2 seconds before losing signal.

EDIT: I don't have it plugged into the router because that's in a different room. Just brought to my PC to troubleshoot it.

EDIT 2: This is a screenshot of the drive plugged into a Windows machine.

Ordered a WD portable 5TB USB hard drive and same problem. Should probably pull down that Raspberry Pi guide on the main site until all these issues get sorted out.

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Did you get the USB drive booting sorted out? If not, have you tried booting off the drives on your Windows PC? You have a known bootable USB key to test on the Pi? I've only used a 2TB drive to boot; maybe the larger TB drives you are using are causing issues.

I have not tried, but since you know you can boot off SD card, I saw a YouTuber, ETAprime use BerryBoot which is a boot loader in one of his videos(Argon m.2 case video). Maybe that could be a work around for you.

We're now publishing release notes for the RPI image to this thread: RPI Image Beta Notes

There is now a new stable USB boot image, which fixes a lot of the boot issues on newer Pi models.

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Can anyone recommend a 2-4 port powered USB3 hub?

When I was experimenting I tried this one

Powered USB 3.0 Hub, RSHTECH 4...

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I have been using this 4+1-port powered USB3 hub with my RPi 4 & Channels Boot Image without any issues:

not seeing a changelog update for image 2021.1014.0205

How is the OS updated on these for security patches etc? It is all manual?
Same question for the Channels software on these. It is automatic or manual?
If I deploy these to non-tech users homes they will not really be capable of doing those things.

Isn't there an option to lower the video quality for transcoding? I am looking at my pi and I only see it for the web player but not remote. I swear there used to be an option to change it manually for one or the other?

Yes - you can force it per-client from the Clients menu on the WebUI.

Thank you, I see it now. He could also try lowering this value for LTE viewing as it may cause less buffering etc.

I'm now using the Channels DVR USB boot image on my Pi 4, and everything is working great. I enabled Samba, but when using the Finder on my Mac to look for the recording files, I only see the following folders in \DVR-SERVER\MEDIA\DVR: Database, Images, Imports and Streaming. Same result when I use the Files app on my iPhone. Why can't I see the folders that contain the actual recordings (aka Movies and TV)?

EDIT: I think I know what my problem is. I connected both the old and new USB drives directly to my Mac via USB in order to speed up the copying of the recording files from the old to the new drive, and now I can't see those folders and files on the new drive when I boot it up on the Pi and connect to it via Samba. Must be some sort of Linux permissions thing?

How is the Pi's firmware updated via the Channels Image?

I thought i read that it gets updated via the OS image, but it was not said how that happens and the process.

Is it hot flashed? or is a reboot or power cycle of the server required?

I have not rebooted my Pi Channels sever in ages, but have updated the image.

Would be great if firmware version and update status would show on the server GUI.

It happens on reboot

Raspberry Pi Documentation - Raspberry Pi Hardware

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Ok. but how would I know I needed to reboot the Pi to update the firmware if there is not indication that there was a firmware update downloaded?

Or does the "Reboot" option in the server GUI when an image update happens, trigger a full system reboot, and not just a soft reboot of the sever software?

Reboot means full reboot, yes. It always reboots after system image upgrades.

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do i have to downloand the file and install like I did to setup the original configuration. I have been running the image on a raspberry Pi for a while now and go on the server page and update the server there and always check for an update under the "operating system section" and it never says there is an update. I always update the status section with pre releases. I boot from the image on my PI. Thanks